PHILADELPHIA --- The Flyers played six games in the last Stanley Cup Finals, and in two Peter Laviolette revealed a piece of his professional soul. In Game 1 against the Chicago Blackhawks, and then again in Game 5, he proved he would never be held to any goaltending commitment --- real, imagined or misinterpreted.

Not that his habit of starting Michael Leighton and replacing him with Brian Boucher in mid-meltdown was anything but what most fans were recommending. Loudly. And if Laviolette favored a goaltender-by-crisis policy, well that was his hair, and he would be allowed to pull it out. No, his itchy personnel finger didn't yield a Stanley Cup. But doing it his way had to have helped him scratch any disappointment.

So it was through that filter of recent history the other day in Voorhees that Laviolette's most recent declaration came through muffled. The Flyers' coach sounded like he was leaning toward Sergei Bobrovsky, not Boucher, as his late-season goaltender of choice, even if 'Bob' had never played a game on ice decorated with a graphic of the Stanley Cup. Sounded. Just sounded.

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"It is what it is, as far as that goes," Laviolette said. "You have the regular season, and if you are talking about Bob, you can look at big games that he has gotten through during the course of the year. They're not playoffs. But that's where we are at right now. There have been lots of young goaltenders who have come in and performed well in the playoffs. We had one in Carolina (Cam Ward) in 2006. It's not something that can't be done. But we can't manufacture playoff experience for him. He is going to have to earn it on his own and get it on his own. And this will be his first crack at it."

By Tuesday, the Flyers' coach was denying that he'd given any indication that Bobrovsky would be his postseason goaltender. Not that it would matter. All a critical-game start ensures is an on-ice spot for the national anthems. Even then, the starter might be pulled between "please" and "rise."

To that, there is one solution: Watch, don't listen. See, don't anticipate. Monitor, don't interpret. And if there is a significant late-season game, with first place perhaps at risk, then study what Laviolette does, not what he hints that he might do.

Conveniently enough, there was one such event Tuesday in the W-F, the Washington Capitals visiting in a 1-vs.-2 Eastern Conference confrontation.

Bobrovsky started.

Boucher finished.

Playoff atmosphere, indeed.

The first crack, to echo a recently uttered phrase, came 7:52 into the game when Nicklas Backstrom rolled between Flyers defenders and flipped a changeup into the net via Bobrovsky's glove. The customers booed. Less than 10 minutes later, Mike Knuble would make it 2-0. More boos.

Within 1:22 of the second, Dennis Wideman would score from about Ashburn Alley. With that, the boos changed ... to Booouuuus.

Watch Boucher waste a late lead and then not stop a puck during the shootout phase of a 5-4 loss.

And admit that with 10 games left in the regular season, the Flyers are no closer to a No. 1 goalie than they were in the final game of the last postseason.

Bobrovsky wasn't alone in his failure. For the first half of a game they had no reason to be so casual about, the Flyers looked like a Big East basketball team playing a mid-major in March, standing around expecting to be great.

"You just have to shake it off," Boucher said, when asked to offer a veteran's spin on a rookie's struggle. "You've got to come back tomorrow, put the work in, and put it behind you."

Since 1975, the Flyers have been putting late-season disappointment behind, usually because they were one No. 1 goaltender shy of the championship requirement. On a night when their two-point lead over Washington was cut in half, there was no reason to expect anything different this spring.

The Flyers have two No. 2 goaltenders.

It's up to Laviolette to pick one ... and keep the other warm.

Laviolette might have been caught in a tilted conversation Monday. The questions were about Bobrovsky, not Boucher. Thus, the answers were, too.

"So we remain committed down the stretch to get guys work," Laviolette said. "I don't have a crystal ball to see what is going to happen down the road or through the third round of the playoffs. We'll take it day by day like we have all year."

Day by day, period by period, shot by shot, mood by mood.

And as always, crisis-moment goalie change by crisis-moment goalie change.